How Jurassic World 3 Can Perfectly End The Trilogy

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is largely setup for Jurassic World 3, establishing a new status quo in which dinosaurs have been unleashed across the face of the Earth. No longer are the prehistoric creatures restricted to a single island; now, they're free to roam in North America, and the Mosasaurus is enjoying snacking on surfers for good measure. Worse still, genetic samples and dinosaur eggs have been obtained by shady corporations and potentially even rogue nation-states. It's the logical progression of the Jurassic World franchise, finally making sense of the film series's title. As Dr. Ian Malcolm observes, "Welcome to Jurassic World."

According to Colin Trevorrow, this was part of his original pitch. Even when he was shooting the first film, Trevorrow remembers telling Spielberg, "This is the beginning. Here is the middle. And here’s the end of the end. This is where we want to go." Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom essentially serves as a bridge, as connective tissue between Jurassic World and Jurassic World 3.

While that's undoubtedly the right way to approach a franchise, it means a lot rests on the success of the final movie. If plot threads aren't tied up satisfactorily, the entire trilogy is damaged. So what does 2021's Jurassic World 3 have to do?

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom's ending reveals that the trilogy's title is actually a promise. Until now, the Jurassic Park films have all been relatively contained; they've typically drawn loose inspiration from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, a novel that saw human explorers discover a small corner of the world in which dinosaurs had survived into the present. By the end of the book, a sole dinosaur made its way to London; in exactly the same way, until now the Jurassic Park franchise has settled for only an occasional glimpse of the havoc a dinosaur could wreak should it get free.

That's no longer the case. The most telling scene in the entire montage was the one where the Tyrannosaurus Rex breaks into the lion enclosure at the zoo, and roars its dominance. There's brilliant symbolism in that scene; no longer is the lion the King of the Jungle. The old King has returned, and it aims to claim its world once again. While only eleven species of dinosaur escaped the Lockwood Estate, the end montage also revealed that dinosaur eggs and genetic samples were purchased during the auction, and are out in the public. All it will take is for a few of those to hatch and dinosaurs to break out. If a few of the dinosaurs that have been liberated lay eggs in the open, then new baby dinosaurs will be introduced into the North American ecosystem.

Jurassic World has thus far been unfolding in something approaching real-time. In the same way, Jurassic World 3 should take place three years after the dinosaurs got out; humanity should have tried to put the prehistoric genie back in the bottle, and failed dismally to do so.

One constant plot-thread running through the Jurassic World franchise has been the idea of man trying to weaponize the dinosaurs: in 2007, Ain't It Cool News discussed an early script for Jurassic World 4 that saw a corrupt corporation create dinosaur "cross-breeds that never existed in any era of nature with all sorts of custom modifications"; the hybrid dinosaurs of Jurassic World and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom were both created to serve as living weapons; and the whole purpose of the dinosaur auction was to persuade arms dealers, companies, and even rogue states that they wanted to buy a dino-weapon.

It's time to stop talking about it, and actually do it. Actually show people attempting to use dinosaurs as weapons; show the acid-spitting Dilophasaurus turned into a ranged weapon, show predatory carnivores set loose in the jungles to mop up guerrilla forces, with trackers placed in them so conventional military forces can then round them up. Explore this idea that's been in the works for over a decade now. But - crucially - don't do it in the context of another species of hybrid dinosaur. The attraction of the Jurassic franchise isn't the idea of seeing what new species humanity could create; it's about seeing what would happen when man and dinosaur meet. Use species of dinosaur that actually existed.

Trevorrow seems to have become aware that the idea of hybrid dinosaurs is getting old. He's already promised that Jurassic World 3 won't introduce any new hybrids. But he's as yet given no indication that the franchise will finally make the most of the idea of weaponized dinosaurs.

Tags: jurassic world 2, jurassic world 3

Incredibles 2: The Screen Slaver Has Really Clever Motivations

Looking for an AD FREE EXPERIENCE on ScreenRant?

Source link